


Family

by frogy



Category: Without a Trace
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-14
Updated: 2005-10-14
Packaged: 2017-10-12 21:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogy/pseuds/frogy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Domestic and possibly fluff</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family

**Author's Note:**

> I was supposed to post this last night but I was distracted by the sandwich of love. I started writing this before season 4 started so there's no spoilers or anything, but at the same time nothing's happened in cannon to make this horibly AU yet. Actually, originally this was supposed to be for [](http://nekosmuse.livejournal.com/profile)[**nekosmuse**](http://nekosmuse.livejournal.com/)'s write domestic fluff challenge. It's domestic, but not horribly fluffy. And speaking of [](http://nekosmuse.livejournal.com/profile)[**nekosmuse**](http://nekosmuse.livejournal.com/), she is a grammar superstar and an awesome beta. Any and all mistakes are mine. And now I'm going to shut up and let you read the fic.

*Brrrrrrrrring*

"Hello?" Danny answers his phone in one ring without any formalities.

On the other end it's Martin. "Where are you?"

"Packing."

"We left work four hours ago. I've been done packing for about three and a half hours. Just put some clothes in a bag and hurry up over."

"Don't rush me."

"Are you going to make me come over there and get you?"

"You can, but it's not gonna make this go any quicker."

"I'm coming over then. Love you." And Martin's gone, leaving a dial tone in Danny's ear.

~~~

Martin really needed Danny to finish packing and show up at his place hours ago. The next morning they are flying down to DC for Martin's niece's fourth birthday. His sister is throwing a huge party in her nice, enormous, suburban house and Martin is bringing Danny. This is the first time Danny's meeting Martin's family. And Martin is panicking.

Martin is never at his best right before seeing his father. No matter how well he learned to be a Fitzgerald, cold and emotionally closed-off, he could never pull it off in front of the one person that mattered. Just the thought of seeing his father turns Martin into a nervous wreck and he's sure Danny's going to be just another way for his father to prove just how conditional his love for his child is and how much of a failure Martin is.

Danny still hadn't shown up by the time Martin started pacing around his apartment. Besides the convenience of already being at the same place when they leave to catch their crack of dawn flight, Martin really needs Danny for a distraction. Danny is a surprisingly good distraction at all sorts of inappropriate times and Martin can't even count the number of times he came *this close* to jumping Danny at work. But Danny's not working as a distraction at the moment because he's not there. It's at this point that Martin calls Danny.

About twenty minutes later, Martin's letting himself into Danny's apartment. Having a key lets Martin sneak up on Danny, which usually leads to all sorts of porntastic fun; fun that Martin can definitely use. But Martin blows the surprise when he enters Danny's bedroom. "God, what happened here?"

Danny's not a neat person in general, but clothes are his thing and normally he's immaculate to the point of neuroses with them. But today it looks like his closet threw up all over the place. Martin walks in, careful not to step on anything that looks to expensive, slips his shoes off and sits down cross legged on a relatively un-messy spot on Danny's bed.

Danny goes to pick up an eggplant colored shirt, which Martin is sitting on just a little bit. "Hey, I'm trying to decide what to pack here."

"Ummmm.... Have you tried clothes?" Martin's not sure if this is a trick question or not.

Danny stops to look at Martin for that and gives his most sarcastic "Really?!?" before turning back to the mess. "I meant what clothes. I'm trying to impress the Fitzgeralds here. This is no easy task."

It never occurred to Martin that Danny might be nervous too and there's only one response he can possibly give. "You impress me."

At this, Danny takes a real pause in what he's doing, leaning over the mess to give Martin a hello kiss. A moment later, Danny's pulling away saying "You're so cute."

With Danny's attention turned on him, and not on those stupid clothes, Martin's smiling for the first time that night. Danny's working wonders. Then he notices the sweater in Danny's hands. "Danny, you can't wear that sweater."

"Why not? I like this sweater. And I thought you liked this sweater." All in all, it is a very nice green sweater that hugs him in all the right places and brings out the sparkle in his eyes.

"I do like that sweater. It's just that you were wearing it the first time we had sex, and every time you wear it I think about having sex with you. And we're going to be at my niece's fourth birthday party and all my family is going to be there and I'm gonna be stuck all day thinking about having sex with you." Martin finishes in a huff.

"I can't believe you remember what I was wearing the first time we had sex. You can't even manage to pick out a tie that matches your shirt." Danny's been trying to get Martin to dress better since they started sleeping together, but Martin's bad fashion is putting up a good fight. It probably doesn't help that Danny kind of thinks Martin's bad fashion is cute.

"Two totally unrelated things. One involves dressing myself in the morning, and the other consists of finding you hot. Although your impeccable fashion sense was a lot hotter when I thought it was natural ability and not insanely long, annoying effort." Banter is good for taking Martin's mind off of things, maybe not as good as sex, but Martin's okay with banter.

Danny just gives Martin a dirty look and keeps going. "What about this one?" he asks holding up a nice, blue, button-down shirt.

"That's too dressy. There's gonna be a ton of little kids there, little kids which are drooly and messy and dribbley." Martin says, barely suppressing a look of disgust.

Or not so much suppressing at all, as the case may be, because now Danny's asking, "you don't like little kids?"

"Well Heather, my niece, is a princess, but in general, not so much. Why? Do you?" Martin's asking in a tone that's a little bit asking how anyone can like kids and a little bit fear that Danny might have an answer.

"Yeah. Kids are great. They have such wonder with the world, and boundless energy, and such innocence. I don't even remember what it's like not to be jaded. With kids everything is all this great potential."

As Danny speaks there's this awe and amazement in his voice that Martin's never heard before and it's like something inside Martin shuts down. Martin's never going to be a father. He didn't like his own childhood, and he certainly doesn't like his own father. He's never liked children in general. And the one good thing about realizing he was attracted to men and not women was that he would never have to screw up some kid's life like his father did to him.

But if anyone deserved a happy, loving family it was Danny, who had been through so much and was still one of the most positive, strong, caring people Martin had ever met. And Martin isn't going to be the one to ruin it for him, no matter how much it'll hurt.

Martin's smiling face from earlier is gone and in its place is emptiness. Martin's eyes go blank and his face is arranged to be carefully neutral. Martin's practiced long and hard as part of his fancy Fitzgerald upbringing to do this without moving a muscle. But Danny's going to notice anyway. He always does. The thought flickers through Martin's head that if it's not going to make a difference, this is probably something from his past he should unlearn before Danny shows just how well he can read Martin by asking. "Martin, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, you'll make a great father." Martin says almost too levelly, only a slight hitch in his voice.

"Martin," Danny speaks softly and climbs right on top of his mess to sit next to Martin, placing a hand gently on Martin's leg. "What are you talking about?"

"You of all people deserve a happy family, and the way you were talking about kids, don't you want children?"

With this Danny lets out a sigh. Martin doesn't know it, but he couldn't have picked a more difficult question to ask because Danny's not sure how to answer, or even what the answer is. But for Martin he's going to try.

"When things are good, like this..." and Danny gestures to Martin and himself and his hand on Martin's leg, which at some point Martin's grabbed hold of, and the ridiculous mess that is his room in the midst of packing to meet Martin's family, "it's easy to imagine us having a family... being happy forever."

Danny has a hopeful look on his face, and what he just said was so sweet Martin has to give a tiny smile even if he's still not sure his world's not falling down around him. But then Danny gets solemn again and continues "But, when things are bad..." And there's a pause in which they look away, both think of Martin lying in a pool of blood "it's hard, and I'm lucky just to keep myself going."

Neither of them like to talk about it, so they don't. But Martin's pretty sure he's glad he was in a coma for most of it. From the little bits he's picked up from Viv, and the team, and Danny himself, he knows Danny came damn near close to losing it. And that's another thing they don't talk about. Danny's alcoholism, because Danny never brings it up, and as long as Danny's okay Martin doesn't feel like it's his place. But when Martin thinks about it, he realizes even their issues are a matched set; it's all about control and overcoming the paths set down for them by their fathers. It would almost be funny if it weren't so tragic.

"Martin," Danny begins again, giving Martin a small shake, making Martin draw his gaze away from their entwined hands and up to Danny's face. "I'm not going anywhere. This isn't some type of deal breaker. I don't want a family without you."

And just like that, Martin's snaps out of it. "We should get a dog."

Now Danny's confused. "You like dogs?"

"Of course. Puppies are cute and fuzzy."

Danny's giving Martin a perplexed look. "You don't like kids because they're messy and gross, but you like puppies that pee on your floor and shed all over your clothes?"

"Uhhh...yes." And now Martin's joined Danny in the confused department because puppies aren't messy; they're adorable and bouncy and fluffy and how can anyone not like puppies?

Danny just sighs and shakes his head. Who would have thought Martin was a dog person? And it looked like Danny was going to become one too, except for one small logistical problem. "Forgetting your odd fascination with puppies, how can _we_ get a pet if _we_ don't live together?"

"Move in with me." Martin blurts out just like that, like it's the most obvious nothing.

So Danny goes with it, not needing Martin to go into another panic. Although he has to say "My place is nicer, you should move in with me."

"Okay. You know, it's probably better that way. If we had to wait for you to pack up your apartment, we'd never be living together."

Martin's jab brings Danny back to where this all started. "Okay, okay, I'm packing," Danny says dropping Martin's hand and getting up from the bed.

Martin just lies back into Danny's bed, at this point not really caring about the mess, kicking his feet out on top of it all. His eyes track Danny, who's finally making progress in packing, moving quickly and with purpose. It's a really nice view with the long, lean line of Danny's back, his strong shoulders and graceful moves and simple perfection. And in the face of that perfection Martin's quiet when he opens his mouth, ashamed and apologizing. "Danny, I'm sorry... about freaking out on you... and everything."

"It's okay." Danny's eyes lock with Martin's as he speaks, the conversation in their gaze saying more than words alone. Danny's look says 'don't worry, I'm okay being strong for you' and Martin's worries 'but what if I can't be strong enough for you' and Danny reassures 'don't worry, I have faith in you even if you don't have faith in yourself', and finally there's a mutual 'I love you'.

This is important enough that Martin echoes the sentiment out loud. "I love you." Words break their staring conversation.

"I love you too." Danny's giving Martin his "oh Fitzie" smirk.

Martin smiles back and everything's okay. Martin snuggles back into Danny's bed not caring anymore about the mess. It's been a long and emotionally draining day and Martin just wants to give his eyes a moment's rest when he closes them. But the last thing he remembers is Danny's smirk and his strong, lean shoulders as he turns around to his open suitcase.

~~~

"Wakey-wakey." Danny's voice pierces through the darkness.

For a moment Martin's disoriented and not sure where he is. He opens his eyes and sees that he's still in Danny's bed, in Danny's bedroom. But sometime while he was asleep the room returned to its usual state of cleanliness, except with a packed suitcase sitting on the dresser. "Come on Martin, it's time to go back to your place."

Martin's warm and comfy in Danny's bed and not really in the mood to go anywhere. "No." Suddenly, out of no where Martin's arms are shooting out, wrapping around Danny pulling him down.

Danny lands with an "umph" flush on top of Martin. Martin's arms are wrapped around him, not letting him go. It's not the first time Danny's fallen for this trick. Martin's normally so gentle that Danny's never expecting Martin to overpower him. And usually when Danny's thinking about Martin's arms, tick with muscles he's so busy marveling at their unbelievable hotness that he forgets their strength.

Danny's only option now is talking Martin into getting up. "If you don't get up now we're just going to have to wake up that much earlier tomorrow to swing by and get your stuff." Danny's doing his best listen-to-your-boyfriend routine, voice soft and sing-song-y. "If we go now we can spend tomorrow morning in bed."

"Danny, it already is tomorrow morning. It has been for..." Martin glances over at the glowing numbers on Danny's clock radio "an hour and a half, and we have an early flight to catch." But Martin's protest is really just for show, his arms are already loosening.

"The sooner we get back to your place the sooner we can have sex." Danny keeps working on enticing Martin to move.

And at first he thinks that did the trick. Martin has released Danny and is squirming out from under Danny and sitting up. Then Martin speaks. "You know that's a really ridiculous argument, you have a perfectly good bed right here to have sex on. We have to wake up in approximately four and a half hours to catch our flight and we still have to get back to my place before we can go to sleep and I plan on collapsing from exhaustion as soon as we get back there. You blew your chance to have sex by taking such a long time packing."

By the end of Martin's rant they've both gotten out of bed and Danny has grabbed his suitcase from its resting place. As they leave the room, Danny speaks. "I think you're overestimating your ability to resist me."

Martin quips right back, bumping Danny's shoulder with his own while stepping through the doorway of Danny's apartment, "I think you're overestimating your irresistibility."

Danny shoots Martin a quick smirk while locking up before they head down the hallway to the stairs. As they head down the stairs, Danny catches Martin's eyes with his own. The look he gives touches Martin's body in all the right places, and then climbs right into them repeating the process in his soul, talking about want and need and love. And suddenly Martin's reevaluating Danny's irresistibility, because if that's the way he's going to play Danny had better be ready for everything Martin's going to give him.

Martin communicates as much with a glance as they walk across the lobby of Danny's building. Walking out the lobby doors Danny returns Martin's glance with a smirk. They continue on this way down the block and across town to Martin's apartment, in silence and in harmony. Tomorrow they'll fly down to DC so Danny can meet Martin's family, and three months from now they'll get a big, floppy dog that sheds all over everything, but none of the details matter in the grand scheme of things because for this moment, and millions of little moments to come, they're perfect together.


End file.
